Shadow Dance
by flufflybunny
Summary: A shitennou reborn fic, involving a strange girl and a second chance. Jadeite is awoken from his crystal by a girl who claims to be from the future. She is seemingly worried about him, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Kunzite. What's up? very slight shounenai.
1. Shadowborn

Hi. This is my odd sojourn into Sailor Moon fanfiction (who cares about homework, anyway), which is easily the strangest, weirdest thing I have ever written. Be warned, OC's abound, and Zoisite's a guy. May venture into Mary-sue-dom, but I'll try my best. Also, it's pretty short, but give me a break, it's my first try at this (besides alagaesia on email, which doesn't count, and Edek's Journey, likewise)

Summary: A shitennou reborn fic, involving a strange girl and a second chance. Zoisite, Nephrite, Jadeite, and Kunzite have been given a second chance on earth. They take it, but what is this strange girl from Crystal Tokyo doing? (note: shounen-ai, because Zoisite is most definitely male and Kunzite is not pairing up with anyone else).

Disclaimer: Not mine, belongs to someone whose name I can't spell.

Prologue (this is a bit random, but I promise, it gets better. Later. I think.):

A figure moved in the shadows of the ruined Tokyo bar, lithely as a cat. It was unmistakably feminine in the way she moved, and the way her silver eyes glinted in the darkness.

She brushed a strand of red-tainted gold hair away from her face, grimacing slightly at the feeling of the blood clotting the lock, and knelt at a cupboard, obviously looking for something.

She rummaged around in the splintered mess, eventually pulling out a bottle of vodka and a grubby-looking cloth.

Taking the lid off, she poured a measure of the clear liquid onto the cloth, and used the cloth to clean a previously-unseen gash on her palm. After getting the cut as clean as it was going to get, she poured some of the liquid into her hair, wincing at the smell.

She heard another sound, and froze, ever-so-slowly backing down behind the bar. A copper-haired androgynous figure swore loudly and angrily, and proceeded to peer in all possible hiding places in the bar.

The girl shrunk down lower behind the bar, the vodka trembling slightly in her hand. Her heart was beating so loudly in her ears it was a wonder the other didn't hear it, she thought mildly.

Finally the figure reached the bar, and leaned over it. 'Come out come out, wherever you are…'

Her breath caught and her heart took up permanent residence in her throat. _Don't notice me…_The figure _knew, _she could feel it. So she wasn't terribly surprised when it executed a flip over the bar and landed, quite neatly, in front of her. She wasn't surprised. That isn't to say she wasn't terrified.

'Hello,' Came the ice-cold, unmistakably masculine voice. 'It's ever so nice to see you again.'

'I don't know what you're talking about.' She said, lying blatantly.

'What a pity,' the man said. She knew his name was Zoisite. 'I suppose we'll just have to take you in for questioning…'

'No!' she said, and made her break for it, still, for some unknown reason, clutching the bottle of vodka.

She was up in one fluid movement, running across the bar, hampered slightly by the bits of debris that littered the place.

Zoisite gave a hollow laugh. 'You were always a sentimental one. How does this,' he gestured at the destruction that surrounded them 'make you feel?'

She snarled then, the animalistic sound ringing through the room. 'You always were an honourless one, weren't you? How does it feel, to have betrayed everything you ever stood for?'

His face flickered with emotions both of them had thought long-dead in him.

'Zoi?' she whispered, softer now. 'Zoi?'

He was normal, then, back to the impassive state. 'Give up now and I won't hurt you. Much.'

'Never,' she whispered sadly. And teleported.

Please review--I need help with this, since I have absolutely no idea where I'm going!


	2. Awakening

Chapter 1: Awakening

Shadows filled the room like cobwebs, almost palpable in their darkness. There was no light, except for a faint glow radiating from a tall, pale crystal the size of a man.

There was a figure in it, a tall, blond man whose eyes shone with fear and whose hands were raised as if to ward off some great evil. He wore a grey-black uniform in a military style, edged with red.

The gloom was disrupted by a flash of ice petals, swirling around a small, lithe form, dressed in a yellow military jacket and somewhat ragged blue jeans. The silver-eyed figure reached up a hand to toy with a lock of gold hair, and looked around, drinking in the room's meager features. Her eyes lingered on the crystal.

Then she swore, taking the names of almost every major deity in all the worlds in vain.

'I overshot, damn it!' the silver eyes flashed with fury. She took a step forward towards the crystal, peering at it intently.

_Oh well. So it won't go exactly to plan—judging from the crystal lines I overshot by about four months—that's not too bad. It only means Ky'll undershoot by four months—crap. That's eight months from now! Eight whole months! And there's no way I can summon Vega…_

_Crap._

_Well, at least this means I get to help Jadeite out of that bloody crystal sooner than he would normally…_

The girl held out a palm, and closed her eyes momentarily, concentrating. A globe of white-gold light coalesced on her open hand, shimmering beautifully.

The girl opened her eyes, which momentarily glowed the same shade as the globe of light. She placed the palm with the globe in it on the crystal, just above the imprisoned man's heart.

The crystal shattered, fragments flying everywhere, slicing into the girl's skin.

She fell to her knees, overwhelmed by a combination of the magnitude of the spell she had just used and the cuts and bleeding.

The man, on the other hand, looked like he had just woken up from a good long nap. Which, in effect, he had.

'Hi Lord Jadeite,' the girl said tiredly. '_Please_ don't kill me. I really haven't been having a good day.'

Jadeite stared, stunned. What in hell had just happened? The last thing he remembered was Beryl sentencing him to eternal sleep…

He managed to recover enough to ask, 'Since you seem to know who _I _am, who are you? What are you doing?'

The girl coughed, wiped her mouth on the back of her yellow sleeve, leaving a trail of red, and replied, 'My name is Gaea, well, Electrum, I guess. Call me Electrum. More on that later. I would have thought the answer to your second question was pretty obvious, at any rate. I'm waking you up.'

Jadeite stared at her again, feeling rather pathetic in the fact that all he could do was stare at this strange girl, Electrum, who, from a mind-touch, had less than a quarter of his magical ability and yet had managed to break the crystal that had imprisoned him for—how long was it again? –while she sat on the ground in front of is former prison and coughed nonchalantly.

'Why?'

'Um…would it be _way _too 'Terminator' to say, I'm from the future and I'm here to help you?'

Jadeite was caught off-guard by that. 'What is this 'Terminator'? And why, of all of us, did you choose to help me? Nephrite and Kunzite are far stronger than I.'

Electrum grinned slightly. 'Don't worry about the first thing, just a little pulp-culture reference that's probably way out of date. To answer the second,' The girl blushed sheepishly, and coughed again.

'Well, see, 'cause I'm from the future and all that, I can't actually do anything to disturb the timeline, and, well, history says you stay put for the next thousand or so years, or, well, collapse into nothingness when the Negaverse is destroyed. So, if we're both careful, you'll be fine, and Sailor Pluto won't try to turn me into little particles of Electrum dust. Also, Nephrite's probably dead by now—check your senses, I doubt you'll find him on your radar—anywhere, and Zoisite and Kunzite have their part to play. '

Jadeite reached with his mind, and was surprised not to find the other King's presence there. 'How?'

She understood. 'Zoisite and some youma. Nephrite very foolishly fell in love with a schoolgirl, making himself vulnerable to Zoisite's attacks.' A flicker of pain flashed over her face at Zoisite's name. Jadeite stored this information away for later, and resumed paying attention to the girl, but she had finished talking, and had curled up with her head in her hands, asleep.

He sighed softly, and chewed his lip, thinking. He couldn't exactly stay here, and while it was tempting to leave the girl here, he had some sense of honour. She'd saved him from the crystal, therefore he owed her.

But how to get out of the Negaverse—alive?

The girl stirred. 'Teleport,' she whispered softly, still dreaming. 'She'll be too busy killing Zoisite to notice you…'

Jadeite looked down at the small body thankfully, bent, scooped it into his arms, and teleported to the safest place he could think of. Nephrite's mansion, currently uninhabited. He hoped.

He also hoped he knew the right way. He'd only seen it a couple of times, when as a drifting spirit he'd followed Zoisite's travels…It was all coming back to him now.

Why hadn't he remembered the dream-drifting earlier?

He had no time to think about this because they were currently inside Nephrite's mansion, and there didn't seem to be anyone else there. Safe. Phew.

He laid his burden on the floor, conjured a blanket and pillow for her, and set off to explore.

* * *

Electrum woke on a hardwood floor in a large hall. She recognized it instantly. Nephrite's mansion. Jadeite must have risked 'porting. And, which surprised her more than the teleportation itself, he'd bothered to bring her along.

Speaking of Jadeite, where was he? Now that she had some measure of her power back, and was actually in some state resembling sentient life, she needed to talk to him.

She conjured a mirror to test her magical potency in his time—she'd never time-travelled before, but the research they'd done had indicated that time-travelling had different effects on different people.

It didn't seem to have affected her magic, so Electrum conjured a hairbrush and ran it through her silky hair. She twisted the gold fibres into a silky rope and shoved them down the back of the blood-stained uniform jacket to keep the hair out of her face. Then she went in search of a bathroom.

* * *

Jadeite, in the course of his wanderings, had travelled though roughly half of Sanjoun Masato's obscenely large house, meandering through several completely empty rooms and a few sparsely furnished ones. After this evidence of a frugal lifestyle (not really supported by the mansion itself, but its furnishings), he'd been utterly amazed to find the wine cellar.

He'd known Nephrite liked wine, but this! The room was massive, twice the size of Beryl's throne room, and completely crammed with varying bottles of red, white, and green wines.

It almost made you want to get drunk.

He reached for a bottle, looked at the label. He couldn't read it. Typical. Nephrite, always a selfish bastard, had gone and bought wine with an English label, which Jadeite was in no mood to translate.

He swore, and threw the no-doubt-expensive bottle one the ground, drawing some small satisfaction from the noise it made hitting the ground.

He watched the red liquid pool at his feet, mesmerised as the wine spread along the floor. There was a hypnotic factor in the way the liquid spread…

He blinked, and shook his head. What was he doing behaving like Zoisite, besotted with Kunzite, or Nephrite with his human girl? Maybe he wasn't lovesick, but he'd seen the look on Zoisite and Nephrite's faces when they were with their respective significant others, and he was afraid his face, for those few moments, had assumed that expression.

He rubbed his forehead. If he was even thinking that, he needed some sleep. Obviously teleporting had taken a lot out of him.

He would go and get some sleep now. Yes, sleep felt like a good idea…

* * *

Electrum ran down the stairs, having pinpointed Jadeite's location through her magical talent. He didn't feel good, and she knew it hadn't been a smart thing to leave him unattended after he awoke.

She skipped the last three steps, and tripped, landing on her knees in the wine cellar. Silver eyes absorbed the racks and racks of wine bottles, as her magical senses kicked in, telling her he would be somewhere along this row…

She picked herself up and followed the magic, which led her to the young-looking man who lay on the brick floor, a pool of red liquid around his head…

Red liquid?

Oh no. No. No. No. Just her luck. She fell to her knees again beside the fallen Shitennou, cradling his head in her lap.

'Oh, Jadeite, I'm so sorry! I was so _stupid!_'

She brushed the red-soaked hair out of his face, trying to find where the blood had come from. There where several minor scratches around his face, but where was the serious one? She smelt alcohol, which had always made her feel nauseous. Not that that was a bad thing… she'd seen firsthand what alcohol did to normally clear-minded people.

Wait.

Alcohol?

She looked closer at Jadeite, and would have kicked herself, had she not been kneeling. She dipped a finger in the 'blood', tasted it, and grimaced. Yup. Definitely alcohol. He must have thrown the bottle on the ground for some reason, and then the energy loss had kicked in.

What an idiot she was!

She telekinetically swept the glass shards out from under Jadeite, conjured a pillow, and gently put his head on it.

What an _idiot!_

She conjured another pillow to sit on, and arranged herself to wait for Jadeite's awakening.

Sorry it hasn't gotten anywhere yet, but it'll pick up next chapter.

If anyone's actually reading this, thanks. If you could leave a review on your way out, it would be much appreciated…thanks anyway.

Yours turly,

flufflybunny


	3. Interlude I: Remembrance

Okay. To anyone who's actually reading this, thankyouthankyouthankyou! To my one and only reviewer, thank you! To the world in general, thank you! (readers back away, slightly disturbed).

Disclaimer: Once again, not mine, not mine, not mine, not mine. Happy now?

This chapter isn't really much of a chapter, rather a random little interlude that basically introduces you to some of my OC's who turn up sometime later.

Hope you like it!

* * *

Interlude I: Remembrance

_I sit on the soft cushion, gold hair spilling down the sides of my face. I watch Jadeite sleep, reluctant to disturb his healing. _

_I close my eyes, veiling the silver orbs, and remember…_

* * *

My name was Gaea, once. I was a princess of sorts. No longer. Such things fade like daydreams, and are far less solid. At least daydreams have a base in reality. I was born in what was once known as the Dark Kingdom—it still is, in this time…

When I was born, my mother cried out in joy. My father had no knowledge of my existence. Probably a good thing, looking back…I knew him, though. At least, I knew his name. Endymion, one-time Prince of Earth.

My mother, his arch-enemy. The woman whose name I can't remember lest I fall again. No…don't think about that. Remember…Friends.

Vega—the star-child. Born of hope, and undying love… More than I could ever be, Vega is the daughter of the Second General. She is immensely magically gifted, on a par with her father.

Her long auburn hair, the same shade as her father's, tied back in the single braid that has become her trademark. Her mother's turquoise eyes glimmering in her pale face, as she comes up with a plan. The last plan she came up with is the one that I'm currently embroiled in, though it _is _brilliant.

Tanzanite- the youngest of us four, and the strongest. Born of mage-power, dancer on magic's thread, and the son, somehow, of the first and last of the Tennou. Crimson-streaked black hair, dangling in his face as he laughs in my memory…Only eight years old, physically, and so very brave…What I could have been, _should_ have been…

Finally, Ky. Kyanite, my best friend, my soulmate, my other half, though we are not, and never will be, lovers. My champion, my heart, and the only being that will ever fully understand me as I understand him.

Our closeness, I suspect, stems from the fact that we are Astral Mirrors, the opposites of each other in every way possible. Jadeite's student, practically his son, though we don't know who shares his genes. Who could have that distinctive silver hair, coupled with eyes of pure gold? _Oh, Ky…_

Four orphans, bound together in the ruins of the Old Dark Kingdom, in the Era that is Crystal Tokyo.

_Jadeite is stirring. I'd better leave him here with a decent food supply for four months, when I can target the right time…_

* * *

Okay, now that I've completely freaked you out with the strangeness and weirdness, i will know have the audacity to ask you for a review. So, how about it? 


	4. Meetings Part 1

Hey to my two reviewers and anyone who is randomly reading this (since that's what I do)... Sorry it's been ages but homework's a bitch. plus the plot bunnies went on strike and played in the hay.

Kay, need a beta, if anyone's interested you know how to get my email. So i figured I'd just post this and edit and repost it later so you get the gist of it.

Disclaimer: To quote JellyJay:

_Syllogisms are fun:_

_The creator of Sailor Moon does not write fanfic (I hope)._

_This is a fanfic._

_Therefore, I am not the creator and/or owner of Sailor Moon._

* * *

Electrum looked down at the blonde figure stirring on the cushion below her.

Jadeite raised his head.

'Hey, kid. What happened? The last thing I remember,' _this is getting familiar, _he thought with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. 'is staring at the spilled wine…'

'You collapsed.' she said flatly. 'I should have warned you about after-effects…' she groaned softly, and muttered under her breath 'Gods know I've experienced them enough.'

'Why?' Jadeite probed, as was his custom.

She stared, stunned, taken aback. Then she seemed to recover her natural state of unreadability, and replied, 'Been crystallized twice now. Not the best experiences of my life.' She grinned wryly.

'Wait. I forgot to ask, you teleported. Why?'

'To get out of there. We couldn't exactly stay there, in case you hadn't noticed the place is swarming with youma.'

'Yeah, but why take me? And, pray tell, did you cloak?' As soon as the last word was out of her mouth, she clapped a hand over her mouth, horrified, muttering something like, 'Smart one, Gaea, real smart.'

'Cloak? You said Beryl'd be busy…'

'I was asleep. You usually believe people when they sleep-talk?'

'Well, I didn't exactly have a choice. And you didn't answer the other question. What's cloaking?'

She chewed her lip, and threw caution to the winds. 'A technique you develop sometime in the future. Basically it hides your magical signature so no-one can tell who or where you are. And turnabout's fair play, don't you think?'

'Wait. I invent this 'technique'? And what do you mean, turnabout?'

'To the first question, yes. It's tied into your status as King of Illusions. For the second, I asked you a question earlier. Why'd you save me? You could have left me there. Probably the smart thing to do, actually.'

'Well,' Jadeite said, reluctant to show any trace of compassion, 'I figured you might be useful. I mean, you broke the crystal I'd been trying to break for Metallia-knows how long. Also, I thought your essence might mask my own.'

'You know,' she grinned slightly, dissipating the shadows in her eyes. 'You're a much cooler person when you actually admit you've got a trace of compassion hidden in that icy mask.'

'Icy masks are Kunzite's forte, actually. I just don't really get much social interaction.' He felt a little off-balanced by the uncanny ease with which she read him, something even Kunzite had had trouble doing. 'And it was a purely to my advantage.'

'Whatever,' she snorted. Her face reverted to a blank mask once more, as she said tersely, 'do you have any idea what we're going to do about youma pursuers? They'll have traced your teleport, and if we're unlucky either Zoisite or Kunzite or both will come after us.'

'You said Zoisite was _dead!_'

'I was dream-talking, remembering. That is, I said something that will happen sometime in the future. _Not _something that has happened, or is currently happening. If that happens again, don't listen to me. If you want proof, check your sensors. Zoisite is still very much alive, unless the past has changed dramatically.'

Jadeite scowled at her, having found the copper-haired Tennou very much alive on his sensors. 'Right. Got that. Now what do we do?'

'I don't know! _You _got us into this mess, remember!'

'Did I have any experience with you? No. Now, with your sophisticated future technique, could you 'cloak' us?'

'Not for the requisite amount of time. But I _could _shield us until we can think of something better. Gimme a sec.'

Jadeite stared, as the girl's power levels seemed to double instantly, and then triple. She began to glow, until he feared she would emit one of the ridiculous phrases the Sailor Senshi seemed to need to use in order to be effective.

Electrum opened her mouth, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. A cloud of silver-gold light surrounded her, expanding until it filled the mansion.

Jadeite braced himself for impact as the pale yellow cloud hit him, but it passed right through him, fading as it hit his skin. He almost gasped, but knew better than to interrupt a magical working. Which reminded him, why did he trust this girl? She could be planning to kill him with this magic!

He certainly wouldn't have trusted one of the other Tennou if they'd offered, just as they wouldn't have trusted him.

He looked at Electrum's slim form, and realized why he trusted her. She reminded him of the Senshi, and though those girls were many things, backstabbers weren't one of them.

Electrum's cloud crackled with a flash of lightning, and dissipated before Jadeite had a chance to tense.

'What was that?'

Electrum smiled briefly, before reverting to her Kunzite-like facial expression. 'You said that in the future too. Then commented on the colour.'

'Wait-we know each other in the future?'

'Yeah. We're pretty close actually; you run the little band of orphans of which I am an integral member.'

'I never asked you, how old are you?'

'Technically, about two thousand years old, I guess. If you don't count the time periods during which I was crystalline, thirteen.'

Jadeite looked at the girl again. _Thirteen? _She certainly didn't look it…wait. In her eyes was a quick flicker of naivety, a light of insecurity. She was young, then, though wise beyond her years.

'The future version of you said that as well,' she paused, as if to say something more, and didn't, biting her lip.

'So, shall we put our little heads together? We need a plan.'

Jadeite pursed his lips. 'The best thing I can think of is going in there and killing Beryl, which would improve the situation greatly. However, you said something about Sailor Pluto…'

'Yeah. If we did that, I'd probably end up little particles of Electrum dust, and _then_ she'd reverse everything we did. Plus, I'm pretty useless right now; that cloak took more out of me than I thought it would.'

'But your power seemed up to the challenge; it doubled, didn't it?'

She frowned. 'See, the thing about that power is that it's only accessible on Earth, and stems from something else. It lowers my normal power levels considerably, and if I use it too many times I'll end up unconscious for a month.'

He peered at her face, that statement having reminded of something long-forgotten. He thought he saw a flicker of familiarity in her face…

'You remind me of someone. Who?'

'How should I know?' But a hint of worry flickered through the silver eyes.

'Someone…someone important. Are you related to Tuxedo Kamen, at all?'

'Tuxedo…what!'

'You know, black tux, top hat, white mask, throws roses…'

'Roses? Yeah… I guess so.'

_Was she going to make this difficult every step of the way?_ 'How?'

'He's my dad, I guess…'

'He's too young for that.'

'No, smartass, I was born during the Silver Millenium…'

'Right. The Silver Millennium. Got it.'

There was a pause.

'So, if you don't mind me asking, who was your mother? That meddling Sailor Moon?'

'No.' That was flat, and sure. No hesitation at all.

'Who then? They had a connection, those two, and I'd like to hear who could bring them apart. From what I can tell, Queen Beryl would very much like to know.'

Electrum's eyes held infinite sadness. 'I'm pretty sure she already does.'

It hit Jadeite like one of Zoisite's ice crystals. 'She's your mother.'

The wry smile was back. 'You think?'

Jadeite was stunned. He sat on the cushion for a few moments, before realizing that Electrum was waiting for a comeback. He said the first thing that came into his mind.

'You don't look like her.'

Electrum's smile turned sad again, and she opened her mouth as if to reply. Suddenly a spasm rocked her, and she said, almost angrily, 'She's sensed us. Damn.'

'Damn is right. I thought those shields were invulnerable.'

'Two words for you: blood bond. She can sense me simply because she's my mother.'

'Crap.'

'Yeah.'

'And there's no way we can fight her?'

'Not without a) changing the timeline, and b) ending up dead.'

'So, basically, we're screwed.'

'Pretty much, unless…'

'Unless…?' Jadeite prompted.

'Unless I can get some help from the future. Give me a couple of minutes.'

'The future? How?'

The girl simply glared at him, and, closed her eyes, concentrating fiercely.

Jadeite sighed, and curled up on the cushion, watching her tiredly from the wine rack. He looked at her with magical sight, watching her aura increase again. He'd have to ask her how she did that…

The pale gold light of before glimmered around her, and formed a silver portal in front of her.

Jadeite stared at the tall, dark-haired teenager, maybe two years older than Electrum, standing on the other side. Her deep sea-green gaze swept through him with a sense of familiarity he did not feel.

'Lord Jadeite,' she said, bowing, 'My name is Vega. I understand you are having some problems?'

Electrum coughed hollowly. '_Some?_ Try having the entire bloody plan gone completely screwed!'

Vega looked at the girl coolly, and Jadeite realized he'd been wrong about Electrum's resemblance to Kunzite. Compared to Vega, Electrum could quite feasibly be considered Zoisite.

'Control yourself, Gaea.'

'Sorry,' Electrum (Gaea?) said wryly. 'And I go by Electrum, here.'

'Oh. Right. Now, exactly _what _has been going on here? And why, pray tell, as soon as you realized the overshoot, did you not return home? _Kyanite _did.'

'Is Ky there?'

'Yes,' Vega sounded exasperated, as if she'd heard this all too many times. 'Now, I need a status report, please.'

'Oh, right. Sorry. I overshot by about four months, released Jadeite prematurely, and he teleported us out of there (and here's the clincher) while Beryl wasn't busy!'

'So, to sum that up,' Jadeite added, 'we're screwed. Would anyone mind telling me who the lot of you are?'

The girls exchanged glances, Vega's full of warning, Gaea-Electrum's of hidden meaning.

'You deal with him,' Vega said sharply. 'He's your problem. I'll get Tanzanite and we'll think of something.'

'Um,' Electrum said worriedly, 'We can't. You know, the whole Electrum particles thing…'

'Then, who, at least, is Gaea?'

'Um… My alter-ego? Like in Batman?'

'Right.'

'Okay.' The girl took a deep breath, and looked over at the other, who nodded encouragingly, seemingly having no trouble with this divulgion. 'Well, you know my Dad's Endymion, right? And Mother's Beryl, current Queen of the Dark Kingdom. Not that Dad wanted any part in it, but…

'Let it suffice to say that Beryl kidnapped and brainwashed him for about three months before his guardians could get him back. This was during Beryl's rise, so…

'Anyway, I was conceived and born, and when I was roughly two, my mother left me on the proverbial Palace doorstep with a note and couple of prophetic dreams to dear old Dad.'

'Naturally, being the saint he is, Endymion raised me. And you know how he does the whole "Tuxedo Kamen" thing? I can do that too. Only, I become Gaea. Earth-mother, in mythology.'

'Okay,' Jadeite said. 'So how…?'

Vega broke in with, 'I personally would love to see the end of this little debate, but Beryl's sensed you. I've got a little discussion to do with Sailor Pluto (no, Jadeite, no-one you know). Don't do _anything_ while I'm gone.'

'Yes, ma'am,' Electrum grinned, and Jadeite saluted.

Vega scowled.

'I mean it!' She disappeared in a cloud of blue fire.

* * *

Okay. Now that you've been thoroughly disappointed by that, I promise I'll fix it...eventually...

Anyway, plz, plz, plz review!


	5. Meetings Part 2

Hi toeveryone and anyone who's reading this! Sorry its been ages since the last update, but, well, the plot bunnies decided to form a trade union...

EmpressAuthor--sorry, I mucked up the timeline again--it's changed to what I previously told you. See Chap 4 for details. If you wantme to bemore specific, you can reach me at the personal messaging thing has installed.

Disclaimer: You know the drill. Not mine, never will be, I bow down to the all-knowing creator of Sailor Moon, etc.

* * *

Electrum was playing with a couple of mice she'd found holed up in one of the steps in Nephrite's rotten stairs. Jadeite was bored.

'Electrum?'

'Yes?'

'Talk to me.'

'I can't. Anyway, you'd think after a good ten months in a crystal you'd be a little bit more used to boredom.'

'Well, I'm not. Who's Sailor Pluto?'

'No! Just—here.' Electrum handed Jadeite one of the mice. 'His name is Kyanite.'

'What?' He accepted the tawny mouse gingerly. It bit him. He grimaced.

'Kyanite. After a friend of mine.'

'A _friend_?'

'No! No like that! Never!'

'Ahhh,' Jadeite had the grace to look ashamed. 'Sorry. No need to overreact… Just out of curiosity, though, why'd you react like that?'

Electrum was hitting her forehead repeatedly, muttering things like 'Get out of my head!', 'images! Images!" and things of that sort.

'Electrum?'

'Um…'she said distractedly, pounding her forehead yet again and causing the mice to squeak in terror, 'he's like…oh, my brother!'

'Ah.' Jadeite said, and flushed. 'Sorry about that.'

'S'okay. I'm all right now, just the shock…'

Just then the air rippled, causing both of their attentions to shift to the space where the portal had been. A teenager hovered in the air, tied-back silver hair grazing his shoulder blades, gold eyes piercing.

'Heya, Gaea,' he grinned. 'I heard you got yourself into a mess. Good to see you, Lord Jadeite.'

Electrum stared at him. His shoulders tensed, and the expectant look in his eyes faded.

'Er…Nice to see you too?' Jadeite tried to break the awkward silence. Kyanite the mouse scrambled out of his hands and ran to Electrum, who absent-mindedly petted him.

'He's got no idea who you are,' Electrum said flatly. 'Gave me a bit of a shock too,' and she grinned slightly, wryly, and the tension in the boy's shoulders eased.

'Oh, Gods, Ky, it's so good to see you! I'd hug you, but Jadeite here already has the wrong sorts of ideas…'

'Oh, _gawd,_' Ky, or so he seemed to be, looked utterly and completely horrified. 'You're kidding me. Ewwww!'

'No joke.He's even nuttier here than back home.'

'Hey! What's that supposed to mean!'

'Chill out, man,' the two teenagers said simultaneously, sounding very much alike. They grinned at each other with an ease of familiarity, as if they'd done this many times before.

'Oh, by the way,' the boy said, 'My name's Kyanite.' In response to Jadeite's puzzled expression, he added, 'We haven't been introduced. I know you, but you don't know me. And I don't know about you, but I hate feeling like a third wheel.'

'Oh. _That_ Kyanite. _Now _I get it.'

'Only now?' Electrum's tone was bitingly sarcastic, reminding Jadeite of Zoisite so strongly he couldn't resist asking, 'Did you take sarcasm lessons from Zoisite?'

* * *

Kyanite laughed, took one look at Electrum's furious face, and quickly corrected his facial features.

'So,' Electrum said, 'Why are _you _here, Ky? Last time I heard you, we were jumping through the time portal…'

'Oh. Well, I accidentally appeared, you know, when the whole thing's over and the senshi are clueless and all and, well, the Dark Kingdom's been busy disintegrating.'

'Ouch,' Electrum sympathized. 'So, naturally you got out of there?'

'Well, you know me; I did a little poking around first. After I lost a chunk of my hair, I decided the smartest thing would be to turn around and go home.' Kyanite admitted, grinning.

Electrum winced. 'Show me?'

He sighed. 'Here,' he pulled the dark red band from his hair, causing the silver waves to spill out over him. There was a large gap in the middle of the waterfall.

'Ouch,' Electrum repeated, and grinned.

Kyanite glared and was about to make a furious retort when he was interrupted by a tap on his shoulder. A boy stood beside him. He couldn't have been more than eleven, and his long ebony-crimson fringe flopped into his eyes. Kyanite sighed and waited for the kid to make his point.

'Hi everyone,' he said…

_

* * *

Gaea's future—Crystal Palace_

'Who is she?' Junior Sailor Venus asked the table, head buried in her hands as she sat with the other Junior Scouts discussing their newest problem. One that they were completely unequipped to deal with.

The Younger Sailor Mercury typed away at her trademark Mercury computer. 'I couldn't get a clear enough reading, girls, so if we're going to identify her we'll need to get closer. And seeing how she destroyed us last time, that's going to be a major problem.'

Venus nodded, and frowned. Mars opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a guard's voice.

'You can't go in there, miss!'

The door swung open, revealing a dark-haired young woman dressed in an oddly familiar blue uniform. She pushed the guards aside; they stood back, awed. Mars rose to her feet.

'Just as a hint, girls,' the teenager said in a light tenor, 'you might want to remember the 'he' bit. Unless you want to end up a bunch of ice-crystal pincushions.'

Mars poised herself for attack; Venus gestured for her to stop. 'Excuse me?'

'His name is Zoisite, he works for the Dark Kingdom,' she paused, as if expecting a response. When she didn't get one, she sighed and continued. 'You know--your respective parents' first enemies?'

Blank stares followed this statement, and she sighed again.

'Wait,' Mercury said, and did something with her computer. She stared at the screen for a moment, and passed it to Sailor Venus. Who looked at the data in shock.

'What the--?'

'The firsts,' Mercury supplied. 'During the year I sulked.'

Jupiter frowned. 'So, basically, we don't have much on them…Except they were supposed to be dead as a doorknob like a thousand years ago.'

'That,' the girl said, 'is precisely the Dark Kingdom's specialty.'

'How do you know?' Mercury asked the question on all of their lips. 'You don't look nearly old enough to have been there.'

'Appearances can be deceiving—take a look at my friend Gaea…But I digress. All you really need to know is that I've got some inside on them, and a bunch of people who have a fighting chance against Zoisite—if his comrades don't show up.'

'His what?'

'Mercury, check your files. Listen, I have to go—just, avoid engaging anyone. If you can, get the city in lockdown until the Seniors get back, okay? Thanks—and if you come across people dressed like me—solid uniform jackets, not striped—_don't _get in our way.'

She disappeared out the door before Venus could order followers.

_

* * *

Present—Nephrite's Mansion_

'Tanzanite,' Kyanite said warningly, 'what the _hell_ are you doing here?'

The boy in question grinned. 'Doesn't Vega always give you those lectures on language?'

'Tanzanite, do you _really _want a black eye tonight?'

Vega smiled. 'Despite the sheer amusement of watching you bicker, there has to be a reason for you to show up here. Out with it, Tanz, or I'll let Ky hurt you.'

'Hey! That was _so _uncalled for!'

'Oh, get a backbone. Now, reasons?'

'Well, Sailor Pluto isn't co-operating, and, well, we've got a situation back home. The senshi, the Seniors, I mean, they're on a diplomatic trip to Nemesis. Metallia's power means they can't teleport back, and the trip by ship will take them at least a month.'

'I take it,' Jadeite said, 'that's not a good thing.'

'And you'd be right,' Tanzanite said. He looked at Gaea. 'How much?'

'None of the details; just the basics—i.e my family history.'

'Fun.'

'Tell me about it. So, do you and Vega have a handle on _this _situation?'

'Well, in a manner of speaking…' Tanzanite shifted on both feet. Kyanite looked at him and frowned. Electrum glared at both of them.

'We're coming here. With the juniors. Everyone else will apparently not be touched, but Metallia'll be wary of our lot. So, basically, because of the power concentration here, we'll be able to put up a pretty decent cloak.'

'Okay…Ever heard of screwing up the timeline!'

'I believe Vega's exact words were, "we don't have a choice. And if Electrum wants to make a fuss, crystals last a damned long time."'

'Ouch.'

Kyanite grinned. 'Serves you right.'

'For what? Not wanting the timeline to go screwy? Forgive if I don't want to end up a paradox.'

'True…' Kyanite blinked. 'Anyway, can we come in?'

'Oh, right,' Electrum waved a hand, and the two boys stepped through the portal, followed by a starburst of light comprising the—Jadeite flinched.

'What the hell are the _Sailor Scouts _doing here?'


End file.
